Resume talks for Christmas’ sake, church leaders urge Reds, gov’t

LUCENA CITY—The government and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines should return to the negotiation table and resume peace talks in the spirit of Christmas, the largest ecumenical group of church leaders in the country said on Thursday.

“May this season of hope inspire both parties to break down the dividing wall of hostility and engage in principled negotiations to end the decades-old armed conflict in the country,” the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) said in a statement.

The statement was issued on Wednesday by Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ, DD, PEPP chair; Bishop Noel Pantoja, national president of Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches; Rev. Fr. Rex RB Reyes Jr., general secretary of National Council of Churches in the Philippines; and Bishop Emeritus Deogracias S. Iniguez Jr., DD, cochair of the Ecumenical Bishop’s Forum.

“May the blessing of the prince of peace who came into the world as a vulnerable child, remind us that our calling as Christians is to pursue peace both in our individual lives and in the life of the nation,” the PEPP said.

The call for the resumption of peace talks, according to PEPP, “becomes compelling since it is the innocent and the vulnerable who continually fall victim to our ongoing civil conflicts.”

The PEPP noted that the call to resume peace negotiations was one of the recommendations on Dec. 8 of Ola Almgren, United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator.

The PEPP also called on the two protagonists to respect and remain faithful to their declarations of ceasefire to ensure a peaceful holiday season.